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Rich Fischer's IBUs - those "identified but unfunded" projects on his facilities wish list - found approval but still no funding from the board of the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District, July 19.

Joe White, the associate superintendent for business services who oversees the district's facilities, said, "We don't have the money. The board is giving us the flexibility of getting all (these 15 projects) done."

Crews are already at work on some of the projects - changing the grates in the pools at both comprehensive schools and restoring the tennis courts at Los Altos High School, White said.

"We have a construction manager on call who's getting quotes for storage facilities," White added. "By September 2005, we should have them all done."

Everyday storage for student use is on its way, as well. Additional lockers for Los Altos students should be in place before school starts, White said.

LAHS tennis courts

He calls the planning done by Carducci and Associates of San Francisco "unique."

Because the tennis courts need to slope to the oleanders, a 10-foot-wide section by the shrubs will be taken out and rubberized, and root barriers will be put in. The fencing will be replaced and the gates trimmed to clear the new surface, which will be two inches higher than before.

A hostile bid environment and contractors who have plenty of work to do already may delay the work, White said, but it will get done.

"We might have to do it later, but we're going to do it. We'll put back the same 12 courts," he said.

LAHS's new courts will be somewhat different but on par with those at Mountain View High School, White said. The LAHS courts will be overlaid with crack-prevention material instead of dug up and compacted.

Field work

"We've been bird-dogging this for a month now," he said. "I hope it won't get postponed anymore."

White added that Valley Crest, the contractor at work on the multiuse field, will remove the fence and release that field to LAHS in mid-August.

Vandalism minor

White said he considered the vandalism "pretty minor" and the district has already taken action.

"There were doors left open - there was no breaking and entering," he said. "We're going to talk to our principals about it. We may re-key and really restrict the use of keys."

White said this incident was the first of its kind he is aware of in this district.

"I've never been anywhere where (vandalism) was so mild. I found no damage at all. It looked more like a lark," he said.

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